Cheapside Street Fire

Glasgow City Archives, Deposited Collections

A dramatic photograph of the fire in a bonded warehouse in Cheapside Street in Anderston, 1960. Firemen from every division in the city attended the huge conflagration, and men from the Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire brigades were also called upon.

At its peak, 450 men were engaged in fighting a blaze fuelled by more than a million gallons of whisky and rum that was held in the bond and sent fierce blue flames leaping into the night sky. Fourteen firemen and five men from the Glasgow Salvage Corps were killed when the walls of the warehouse were blown out into Cheapside Street and Warroch Street simultaneously as a result of an explosion inside the building.

Reference: TD1431/51/26/4

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries, Information and Learning